Grantham Hospital daytime A&E services to return this week

From Wednesday the 24/7 Urgent Treatment Centre will revert back to an 8am-6.30pm A&E service. The inpatient medical service will also restart on this date.

Temporary changes were introduced at the hospital last June, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. These saw the hospital change to a ‘Covid Green site’, which enabled the Trust to continue to provide chemotherapy sessions, endoscopy, and cancer and other elective surgeries for patients from across Lincolnshire, in an environment with a minimised risk of possible coronavirus infection, while the other hospitals at Lincoln and Boston handled covid patients.

The GP out of hours service will return to the site with an enhanced walk-in service from 6pm-10pm and bookable appointments overnight until 8am which can be accessed through NHS 111.

The walk-in element will offer the same services as the UTC, including:

○ sprains and strains

○ suspected broken limbs

○ bites and stings

○ eye problems

○ feverish illness in adults and children

○ minor scalds and burns

○ emergency contraception.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust Chief Executive, Andrew Morgan, said: “These temporary changes were introduced so we could safely provide more urgent elective care, such as cancer care, elective surgery, diagnostic and outpatient services during the global pandemic whilst minimising the risk of infection where possible.

“Thanks to the dedication, flexibility and hard work of our staff, as well as the co-operation from the people of Lincolnshire, this decision to ensure patient safety and services has been highly successful, as evidenced by the outstanding outcomes, particularly the fact that there was not a single post-operative case of COVID-19 in our patients.

“We always said these changes would be temporary and following a review of the clinical evidence, we are confident that we are now in a position to safely resume the full range of services to support our patients and population.”